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Faust will meet up with Cragar in the northern alleyway. Along the way he'll take a good look at what seems to be a door in the northwestern corner of the warehouse. How is it locked, how secured the hinges are, etc. etc.

The door is of stout wooden construction. There's a crude handle made of iron on it, but the hinges are on the inside, so Faustus can see that it's just there to make it easy to pull the door shut. There appears to be a sort of lever-action latch, but manipulating it doesn't cause the door to open, leading Faustus to believe that it must be barred from the inside. This is borne out if he pushes on the door; it rattles a bit in its frame, but doesn't really budge.

He's pretty sure that if he wants inside badly enough, he can beat on the door until something gives; it's a stout door, but Faustus is a pretty muscular dude. It'd make noise that would alert anyone who might be inside, and if there's anyone awake among the immediate neighbors, the noise likewise might be an issue for that reason. But he doesn't see any light sources other than his own torch.

The northern alley wends its way between the backsides of three different buildings, all of them single story affairs. It's not clear what's inside because there's no signage back here; the building immediately north of the Whiteflower Building looks like it must front onto the larger side street that lies off to the west, and this probably also is the case for the one immediately north of that building, as well. The last, our heroes think, must have its public entrance on another side street that lies to the north.

All three buildings feature secondary doors, but all three doors keep up with the trend of being heavily barred to deny access. It doesn't smell great back here, and Cragar and Faustus both find it obvious that people sometimes slip back here to relieve themselves. If it weren't dark, there probably would be flies buzzing around everywhere. The warmer temperatures of daytime probably wouldn't do much to make the smell more bearable, either, but fortunately this is actually looking like it's a decent shortcut between the street in front of the Whiteflower Building and the one that they suppose this alleyway's northern branch must discharge into.

All squares on this map are 5 ft. increments. That's standard practice with me, and in the (extremely rare) cases where I deviate from it, I try to hit people over the head with it so that it's clear I've done so.

Because the alleyway is so narrow, your characters probably wouldn't find it comfortable to move down it in anything other than single file. There are some factual issues with this statement that have to do with the idea that you guys can pass freely through each other's squares. So the reality is that you can jostle past one another without any real issue, if you want to do that, and I guess it'd also be fair to say that when it's happening outside of an encounter where we're tracking initiative, you guys can cluster up to some degree.

But during an encounter where initiative is being tracked, a whole passel of abstractions come into force. One of those is that two creatures cannot occupy the same square unless one is helpless or at least one is sized Tiny or smaller. So in the event that you guys have a combative encounter in this alleyway, I would certainly treat it as a requirement for you to be in single file. Outside of initiative, I probably would assume that you were moving in some kind of severely elongated gaggle which may or may not be a single-file line.

If I were defaulting to the assumption that you guys would be fighting anything you were likely to meet, I'd probably lean towards the abstraction side of things, and get a marching order.

Okay, you guys have a little bit of downtime In Character. If people are doing stuff other than basic food/sleep/etc. maintenance tasks, this is a good time to speak up. If you want it to be a secret, send me a PM.

Gravington wouldn't mind spending a little more time with Fricka. It is his sincere hope that she is used to using her body to get what she wants and is interested in making Gravington a smitten ally. He will angle for such an opportunity but he's not chasing her around like a lost puppy.

I feel like Gravington just volunteered to get himself stabbed discreetly through the eye socket and left in the gutter to rot, but if he's okay with the risk profile and you're okay with the risk profile, then who am I to stand between a gnome and his romantic aspirations?

You and Fixxxer can tend to business here, via PM, or not at all, just as you think best.

You and Fixxxer can tend to business here, via PM, or not at all, just as you think best.

I did have a player once that appeared to have a gnome fetish. He spent significantly longer than was appropriate trying to explain how a gnome's nose is direction proportional to the size of his manhood. I didn't invite him back.

Is... is the nose the gnomehood, or is it his other part. And if so, what is his nose called?

Fricka's got some stuff to look into, which I've PM'd Talanall about already. If Gravington wants to be a smitten puppy, he can very likely wile his way into coming along, if he's clever about it. If he's not clever, she might... you know, that thing Talanall said.

Yes. I'm waiting to be sure that a couple of PCs aren't going to kill one another or be killed by someone else. It's one of those things that you have to worry about with evil PCs that usually does not come up with non-evil ones. Unfortunately, the exchange at question has been delayed by real-life concerns.

I will immediately continue the main thread of this game as soon as the situation is resolved. Please accept my apologies for the extensive delay.

The delay is mainly my fault. I recently moved and Comcast has been dragging their asses about the internet, right in the middle of roleplay via PMs. I've gotten the issues resolved and barring unforeseen circumstances, I should have continuous internet access from here on out.

Okay, folks. Please accept my heartfelt apologies for the delay. I think we've got all our ducks in a row again, so game on. I know that several of you use the subscription functionality and will get notice on your own. For the rest, please excuse me for tagging you so that the site will ping your e-mail.

Just for grins, let's say that the buildings in purple are single-story affairs, and the blue and orange ones are two.

The black building is the Moonflower Warehouse, and as I think was indicated during Faustus and Cragar's reconnaissance, it is two stories.

I recall Faustus and Cragar had been contemplating some arrangement involving Fricka and Gravington taking a rooftop position to support an ambush of the warehouse manager as he tries to flee, so I imagine that this is why you're asking.

Totally right. Cragar's plan is to move to the alley between the Chandlery and the Stationer. When shit goes down, he's going to cross the street to stand between the warehouse and the Cartwright. Then, he's going to continue moving North to the ambush as the target tries to evade.

The gnomes are about 3 feet tall. Faust and Gruum are about 6 feet tall. We'll say the edge of the warehouse roof is only 10 feet above the ground.

Even so, you'll have to toss them, or get a running start and jump with a gnome held above your head, or something of that nature. If you fuck up, there'll potentially be some kind of non-lethal damage as a penalty. It probably won't knock anyone unconscious and definitely won't kill anyone, but it could make life more difficult if the warehouse manager is especially feisty.

The same basic risk profile applies if you use the rope and grappling hook, so the same general set of concerns applies there, with the exception that the DCs lower across the board.

I fully support either approach. The idea of having you guys toss gnomes or go for running high jumps with them held over head is pretty amusing.

Fricka is less than enthusiastic about being tossed. Her vote goes to combining the two options. We get a boost, then use the rope from our boosted position to make a shorter climb than if we started from street level. This has the added benefit of giving Fricka and Graveldick a handy option for getting off the roof without having to jump down 3+ times their own body height.

Our vertical reach is higher than 6ft, and the gnome's vertical reach is higher than 3ft. They can stand on our shoulders and reach up to the roof (or a small hop), then we can push them up as they simultaneously pull themselves up. I've used this method to get people on numerous roofs (I climbed buildings as a hobby when I was younger, and often took people along that needed to be assisted).

Still, rules-wise the rope/boost combo works just fine too. Faust doesn't care what method winds up being used as long as it works without injury and we can move on with the plan. He also thinks it's a good idea to have the rope secured in case the gnomes must descend quickly. Preferably with the end leading down into the western alley.

It's true that in game terms, a Medium (tall orientation) creature has higher reach. By default, it's a vertical reach of 8 ft. Small creatures have a vertical reach of 4 ft. So I guess I don't have any issue, mechanically speaking, with the proposition that you could simply boost the characters needing to go up onto the roof. They'd need to succeed on a Climb check (DC 15) to pull themselves up onto the rooftop, though, per the normal details of that application of the skill, or I'd have to to call for a check from you associated with a toss/jump that would get them high enough not to need it.

Basically, it works out to a situation where you'd be deciding who makes a check. The gnomes are not particularly strong or athletic, so they wouldn't be able to take 10 on the Climb check that would be needed if you just lifted them, and they'd be able to fail by more than 5+ points, which means they could just lose their grips and fall.

The easiest way to handle this whole thing is for Faustus or Gruum to climb up, secure a rope (without needing a potentially treacherous Use Rope check to set a grappling hook), and then let the halflings climb it. The Climb check falls to DC 5, and the gnomes will be able to get down again.

Of course, your cover story is along the lines that you're ordinary citizens roaming around to scope out potential sites for a business venture. So the more complicated you make this ambush, the more explaining you'll have to do.